Connections in Cemeteries

A few years ago my Dad and I did a day trip driving around some back roads in Northern Ontario. I have since named this trip the Cemetery Tour because we stumbled upon so many little cemeteries. It was interesting to see the places that small communities buried their loved ones. Since that trip I have also developed a love of cemeteries. They are some of my favourite places and I love to stop and walk around them. Despite this love I had never gone to visit any of the cemeteries in Toronto until this fall when I decided that needed to change that and I started to research Toronto cemeteries.

This is when I remembered that I have some relatives buried in the city. I knew that they were in Toronto but I was not sure where, luckily on the Mount Pleasant Group website you are able to search for graves by name. I discovered that my Great-Grandparents are buried in York Cemetery and that my great Uncle and Cousin are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

My first trip was to York Cemetery. It took about an hour to get there but it was worth it. As you walk into the cemetery you walk down a long lane that ends at a large cenotaph. It was beautiful and very quiet. I knew the general area that my Great-Grandparents are buried so I headed in that direction. As I walked I noticed something that I have never seen in another cemetery before, the gravestones backed up against each other. I think that is pretty interesting and a good way to layout graves. It turned out I was lucky that day and I picked the exact row that my Great-Grandparents grave is located. Their grave does not have anyone behind it and instead it is surrounded by a bush. One day I am sure that it will overtake the headstone but right now it is beautiful.

The day that visited York Cemetery was a warm fall day. The trees were covered in red and yellow leaves and the sun was still warm on my face as walked through the rows of graves. I didn’t know how I would feel when I first saw found the grave of my Great-Grandparents but I, funny enough, exclaimed out loud “I found it!” I was so happy that I actually found it, I felt like it was too easy. As stood in front of the headstone I started to feel emotional. Over the years I heard plenty of stories about my Great-Grandparents and had seen books and items that had belonged to them but I had never met them. While I felt a connection to them this was something different. I teared up a little and started to speak out loud. I wanted to tell them things about me and my family. I wanted to tell them how my Granny was doing and that I would send her a picture of their headstone. I think that I wanted them to know that we are all OK. It was’t really even a conscience thought, it just sort of happened, but it made the visit feel really special.

My next trip was to Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Mount Pleasant is the largest and most beautiful cemetery that I have ever visited. I spent just over two hours walking the paths looking at all the graves. I was able to find my Great Uncle and Cousin’s graves but it was a little more difficult then my Great-Grandparents. If you have never looked up a grave online before you only get a general area for the location. I had the map from the website pulled up on my phone and I kept crossing checking it with google maps to see if I was in the right area. Finally after about fifteen minutes walking through the headstones in the area I believed the grave to be I found it. It is back a ways from the path and behind a few other graves. It is a large stone that is within a circle of graves and has a bush on both sides. I think that it is interesting that both graves that I found have a bush surrounding them. This one was more intentional and very well maintained. While I didn’t have an emotional moment like I did at my Great-Grandparents grave I did feel a connection. This what I love about cemeteries, you can find connection and you can find bits of your family history.

The third cemetery that I visited in the fall was The Toronto Necropolis. This is one of the city’s oldest cemeteries and it shows on how worn the headstones have become. Originally set outside of the city the Necropolis has become swallowed by the city and it is most notable when you reach the western most side of the cemetery. There you will find a hill that looks out on the busy Don Valley Parkway. It is such a strange view as you stand on that hill, there are graves that cascade down the hill toward the sound of traffic that is just beyond a line of trees. There are a few open openings in the branches in which you can see the juxtaposition of the cars against the old world of the city of the dead. This is what Necropolis means, The City of the Dead, and this is exactly what it feel like when you enter through the white gate. It is as though there are different neighbourhoods for the graves. The spot that this is most evident is one that I stumbled across while exploring the hill that looks out over the DVP. Lining the hill are a couple of staircases that take you toward the highway and once I was down at the bottom of I noticed what looked like a path that led around the side of the hill. This is were there is a small field that is dedicated to fallen soldiers of World War One. A couple of trees shade  two or three rows of small gravestones that simply state the name a rank of each soldier. The sun was shinning through the leaves and it made me take pause. These men gave up their lives for Canada and their graves feel hidden. I’m not sure how many people know that they are even there but I was so glad that found them. I hope that when people come upon this place they will take a moment for quiet contemplation and to remember how lucky we are to live in this country.

While I do not have a family connection to the Necropolis like I do with the other two cemeteries I visited there is so much history held inside. I love to learn about history and it is interesting to see a place that hold so much even though everything around it has changed. This ultimately is what cemeteries are, a place to that keeps connections to history and family while the world changes around them.